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Conduit: Wii FPS and graphics engine [56k go to hell!]

Still, doesn't look half bad - a step up from crappy PS2 ports, anyway. Hopefully the availability of an easy-to-liscense graphical engine like this will up the general quality of your average Wii title. It's obviously not PS360 level, but it's not bad. You can find there promo video for the engine here, and below are some screens from their FPS called Conduit built using this engine. There are also a couple shots of the game itself in the IGN preview.

Now, a few glittery screenshots picked more or less at random - as usual, made all wierdo because they're on a Nintendo system (what is the deal with that anyway?)

The preview also says that they took control inspiration from Medal of Honor 2's fully customizable sensitivity, which was widely praised, so I think it's safe to say it's a pretty promising title. However, there was also this:

The argument, going on in the board rooms of major third-parties around the globe, is that adult-oriented Wii software doesn't sell. That there's no market for it. Developers on the other side of the fence assert that there's no such proof since only a handful of quality games with an edgier style have even made their way to Wii, most of them ports. Several studios have flat-out told IGN that their attempts to make darker software for Wii have been politely declined by a host of big-name publishers.

So let's hope they actual find someone to publish it. This certainly doesn't look like Vaporware, and if it simply can't get picked up because it's a more violent title being made for the Wii I'm going to be a good bit pissed.

There is also a video of the game in action over at IGN. It looks....you know, I'm not sure. Check it out for yourself here. Or if you're lazy, just check out what it hopefully and embedded YouTube video:

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The argument, going on in the board rooms of major third-parties around the globe, is that adult-oriented Wii software doesn't sell. That there's no market for it. Developers on the other side of the fence assert that there's no such proof since only a handful of quality games with an edgier style have even made their way to Wii, most of them ports. Several studios have flat-out told IGN that their attempts to make darker software for Wii have been politely declined by a host of big-name publishers.

Given that MANHUNT 2 and RE4 and a host of other "darker" titles have made it to the Wii, I can't help but feel that IGN is full of shit yet again.

I was wondering where all the FPS titles were, though. They're severely lacking on the Wii.

Its a really risky venture. They would need a publisher that believes in it enough to put some real powerhouse marketing behind it. All 3rd party shooters since Red Steel have bombed hard. While they've been largely psp/ps2 ports, Red Steel also had the advantages of hitting at launch and with the marketing power that Ubisoft sometimes uses.

Its a really risky venture. They would need a publisher that believes in it enough to put some real powerhouse marketing behind it. All 3rd party shooters since Red Steel have bombed hard. While they've been largely psp/ps2 ports, Red Steel also had the advantages of hitting at launch and with the marketing power that Ubisoft sometimes uses.

Red Steel was also Ubisoft garbage and likely hurt confidence in further FPS releases on the console.

I have absolutely no idea what you guys see in these screenshots. The textures are low resolution, the lighting looks awful, and the geometry is fucking sparse. I've seen the Dreamcast do better stuff than this. Look at the hands in the first screenshot, or the creatures in the third.

I applaud the efforts of the dev team for trying, but this is not the best that the Wii can do. 'Sides, I'm not too worried about the graphics so long as the gameplay is any good.

[Edit] Here's the screenshots from the other thread that I'm mentioning.

In the other thread about the game (seriously, we need to get rid of one of these), someone else called him out and he said he was just exaggerating. In his defense, sometimes it's hard to remember how primitive DC games look now when our memories of them typically involve how kickass they looked then.

People have such clouded perceptions of previous systems. Like all the people always saying that the Dreamcast had better graphics than the Wii. When was the last time you played a Dreamcast game because there is a huge difference between the vast majority of Wii games and Dreamcast games. Here are screenshots from the two highest rated Dreamcast FPS's (Quake III Arena & Unreal Tournament). The Dreamcast games are obviously a lot more blocky with much muddier textures and keep in mind both of these games are coming from FPS powerhouses who pride themselves on visuals and indeed in their day both of these games were impressive but nowadays even crappy Wii games look better from a technical standpoint.

Eh the screenshots really aren't at all impressive. I think finding a market for newer FPS titles on the wii is important though so this is definitely a good thing as long as they get the support they need.

It looks like an Xbox game. Hell, Black on Xbox and PS2 is prettier than this.

Though, it looking like a 360 game? Yes, sure, EDF for example. Low budget game with giant bugs all over.

I'm pretty sure it looks worse than this game actually. But if that's the standard, well...

Actually I've been playing Doom 3 on my Xbox this past week which is considered one of the best looking FPS's of last gen and I think these screenshots look a tad bit better from a technical standpoint (I know that is hard to quantify) but it's close. As of now, my stance is that this game is right in between cream of the crop PS2/Xbox FPS's and First Generation Xbox 360 FPS's played on a 480i/p tv.

You're a gentleman and a saint UncleSporky (typing your name is awesome, by the way). Those screens look okay, but I'm sure they are better in motion. If it's a 60FPS that's all that matters to me. (Didn't Mario Galaxy run at a constant 60FPS?)

urahonky on April 2008

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You're a gentleman and a saint UncleSporky (typing your name is awesome, by the way). Those screens look okay, but I'm sure they are better in motion. If it's a 60FPS that's all that matters to me. (Didn't Mario Galaxy run at a constant 60FPS?)

I don't remember. They said that right now it's supposedly able to achieve 30 FPS but they hope for 60.

I hope I don't sound like a complete idiot when I say that I have never really noticed FPS in games. As long as it's not incredibly noticeable like 15-20, I'm fine. The difference between 30 and 60 is lost on me. Does that make me a bad person? I'm more interested in textures, geometry and lighting.

The IGN tech demo is a lot better than the screens, but it's also a tech demo and thus probably cheating a bit. There's no gameplay footage yet. And BTW those are just some random screens, there are ones that look better and worse depending on what you expect.

Nah, not a bad person. But going from the shitstorm (FPS wise) that was Shadow of the Colossus and putting in Mario Galaxy made it so hard to go back and play SotC.

Yeah, that is one game that is noticeable.

I'm even worse than you - I would never have known that SotC suffered from slowdown if people didn't bitch about it constantly. I don't remember noticing it once.

On the topic of this game....I wonder what stage the build is at? None of the stuff in the game looks nearly as impressive as the engine demo, but there are flashes here and there (like the wings -only- on the little bugs) that show glimpses of it. Knowing that every little shader effect has to be coded manually for the Wii, maybe that kind of thing will spread as the build progresses. I hope so, because I certainly don't see a whole lot in those in-game shots that compares to what the engine demo showcase seems to promise.

Nah, not a bad person. But going from the shitstorm (FPS wise) that was Shadow of the Colossus and putting in Mario Galaxy made it so hard to go back and play SotC.

Yeah, that is one game that is noticeable.

I'm even worse than you - I would never have known that SotC suffered from slowdown if people didn't bitch about it constantly. I don't remember noticing it once.

On the topic of this game....I wonder what stage the build is at? None of the stuff in the game looks nearly as impressive as the engine demo, but there are flashes here and there (like the wings -only- on the little bugs) that show glimpses of it. Knowing that every little shader effect has to be coded manually for the Wii, maybe that kind of thing will spread as the build progresses. I hope so, because I certainly don't see a whole lot in those in-game shots that compares to what the engine demo showcase seems to promise.